Mid-book report: Seeing by Saramago

I've picked up this book a few times and not read it. It's a sequel (of sorts) to Blindness -- basically, the same anonymous city that was beset by the blindness plague is now beset by an election abnormality: about 80% of the populace cast blank votes.

There are clear parallels to the 2000 U.S. election. It's a metaphor, I get it. Saramago writes stories that echo Camus in terms of plot and, to a lesser extent, existentialism.

This book just isn't as engaging as Blindness. His observations are still terrific. Saramago writes with an incredible wisdom of the human psyche. But whereas Blindness claustrophobically centered on individual stories, with the scope of the plague always a mystery, Seeing centers, thus far, on the politicians, the prime minister and spies trying to uncover why people voted for no one. It takes this broad path that's far less compelling, particular with Saramago's narrative style, in which no characters have proper names (just titles) and dialogue isn't broken apart with quotation marks.

I'm writing about it now because I'm not sure I'll finish it. Read Blindness, though. It's terrific.